Garbage collection and disposal has been disrupted once again in the valley due to a strike resumed by local body employees. The disruption that began Thursday is likely to last until next Wednesday when the cabinet meets, which alone can address the demands of the agitating employees.

Local bodies’ employees have vowed to not call off the strike this time around unless the three-point deal they struck with the Ministry of Local Development (MoLD) on December 27 is materialized. “The government has betrayed us time and again in the past,” Hari Shrestha, president of Local Bodies´ Employees´ Association (LBEA), said. On the other hand, Officials at MoLD assert that they have already done their bits to address the employees’ demands.
“We can do nothing more on ourselves,” Krishna Gyawali, secretary at MoLD, told myrepublica.com. “It is now entirely up to the cabinet to decide whether to implement the three-point agreement or not.” This means that the streets in the valley will be littered with stinking refuses for almost one week.
Garbage has already started piling up on the streets. According to Rabin Man Shrestha, chief of environment section at Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), some garbage has been collected but not disposed. “We collected 25 per cent of garbage Friday but failed to dispose it,” Shrestha said. In the valley, over 350 tons of garbage is produced every day. Local bodies’ employees have shut down all 75 DDCs, 58 municipalities and 3,915 VDCs from Thursday, accusing the government of not being serious about implementing the agreement.
Gyawali, who also leads a taskforce formed to assess the feasibility of implementing the agreement, says that his team has already submitted its report to a minister-level committee. The committee – which consist ministers for local development, finance and law – is supposed to submit the report to the upcoming cabinet meeting.
“In our report, we have mentioned that some of the demands raised by the employees are genuine,” Gyawali said, adding, “The ministerial committee will come up with its own views after thoroughly discussing the report prior to submitting it to the cabinet.” As per the three-point deal, the government is to make all temporary local body staff appointed before July 15, 2008, permanent, promote deserving local body employees through a due process and introduce Local Development Services Act.  

Source: Republica, January 23, 2010